GUEST COLUMNIST: Health care is best medicine for strong local economy

Tuesday

Apr 23, 2013 at 2:00 AM

The Orange County economy has been driven by two key sectors for many years — distribution and retail. These two industries continue to serve us well, producing jobs and taxes that have allowed us to weather most economic storms.

Maureen Halahan

The Orange County economy has been driven by two key sectors for many years — distribution and retail. These two industries continue to serve us well, producing jobs and taxes that have allowed us to weather most economic storms.

However, the office sector has been a longstanding weakness for Orange County. While we have built superior Class A accommodations in places like Crystal Run Road in the Town of Wallkill and at Stewart Airport, for the most part the commercial office sector has not been a major driver of growth.

That is beginning to change. The catalyst for a stronger and more diverse Orange County economy in the years to come is health care.

Residents of communities in Middletown, Wallkill, Newburgh, Monroe and Warwick should be recognizing the emergence of health care-related companies in their business districts. As an example, a recently completed strip center on Route 17M in Monroe has leased space predominantly to health care-related service companies.

The most obvious major project to come down the pike is the new $350 million Orange Regional Medical Center in Wallkill. Another major endeavor to begin construction soon is the redevelopment of the former Horton Hospital in Middletown into the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. The project developer, Danza Leser Group LLC, is also looking to develop 250 units of housing for students and faculty. The developer is in discussions to include a nursing school and an assisted-living facility in the complex.

The hospital and the medical school will continue to foster growth along the "Medical Mile" running from East Main Street to Crystal Run Road in the Middletown-Wallkill corridor.

Medical service providers continue to grow throughout Orange County. Crystal Run Healthcare has built two major office buildings along Crystal Run Road and is planning to build another in Monroe.

Recently, you may have heard the Orange County Partnership is working with Medical Missions for Children, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that is interested in constructing a $95 million cancer treatment center. The project could create up to 600 jobs.

Finally, the Middletown Community Health Center is moving ahead with plans to redevelop the shuttered O&W Station building in the City of Middletown. Sen. Chuck Schumer is working to secure $4 million in tax credits for the project, which would help continue the revitalization of downtown Middletown and enhance health care services to those in need in the area.

The city sold the long-vacant property to the health center for $1 in 2011 to help this much-needed project. The project would allow MCHC to expand primary care services and bring its internal medicine, OB/GYN, pediatrics, dentistry and other services under one roof.

The emergence of health care could be the prescription that keeps this economy thriving, no matter the circumstances. There are numerous examples of regions that relied heavily on one or two major sectors and suffered greatly when those industries fell on hard times. With our distribution and retail sectors firmly entrenched, the health care sector will bring great-paying jobs, while enhancing our quality of life now and for generations to come.

Maureen Halahan is president and chief executive officer of the Orange County Partnership in Goshen and serves on the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council.